juliette
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juliette has not written any posts yet.
Also because nobody has a great solution yet for alignment, I can see that it is very easy for any work to be heavily critiqued. In other domains, you can feel like you are contributing something valuable even if you aren't doing anything ground-breaking. This is slightly different from not feeling smart enough I think. Although it hasn't happened to me (yet!) because I haven't shared any of my ideas publicly, I can see that the constant critique is something that could be quite demotivating.
As a newcomer too, my experience of the community is that is has felt much less supportive than in other technical fields I have worked in (although I... (read more)
Really enjoyed this post. I have been talking about this sort of idea a great deal with my physio lately - people often put lots of unnecessary effort into actions that that they don't need because somehow they have a belief that 'effort is good'. He has had cases where he has e.g. shown more elderly patients easier ways to get up from a chair and they have refused because 'it is too easy'. As children most of us were taught to put in 'effort' and 'try harder' whereas usually what you actually want is to find a better way of doing whatever you want to do, rather than to 'look as... (read more)
Did a PhD and post-doc in maths and also have a 10 and 12 year old so have been interested in watching them and their peers learning mathematics at school and have even been in to help at school a little bit.
I think understanding and problem-solving are different, although the former is a prerequisite for the latter. I can imagine understanding areas of mathematics but not having a good ability to solve novel problems.
Abstraction is a massive part of mathematics. Some people seem to find abstraction much easier than others. I don't know to what extent it is a learnable skill, but I think without it more advanced mathematics is almost impossible.
Also... (read more)
I'm reminded of the book What is Mathematics, Really? by Reuben Hersh. I read it too long ago to be able to summarise it well or debate the arguments, but it takes a fairly similar stance to mathematics and is very readable from what I recall.
I've just been reading Anxiety Rx by Russell Kennedy (which applies to troublesome thoughts in general not just anxiety so think it is rather unfortunately titled!) and I think some of the ideas in it might be relevant here.
His assertion is that it is easier to use the body to calm the mind than to use the mind to the calm the body. If you are a very cognitive person it is tempting to do the latter rather the former - you believe (falsely!) that you can talk yourself into feeling safer.
He makes an interesting distinction between anxiety as the thoughts in the mind and alarm as the corresponding sensations in the... (read more)
This reminds me of iRest yoga nidra. One part of it involves identifying a belief that you want to work with and then alternating between the 'felt sense' of that belief and it opposite (using a memory you have chosen to access the 'felt sense' of a belief). After alternating, you then hold both the 'felt sense' of the belief and its opposite in you attention at the same time. Sometimes (but not always), I've had the original belief melt away in that process and I wonder if this explains what is going on there.
I only spoke three words at age 3, but my parents didn't worry because I understood language and communicated very creatively using those three words! This was in the seventies in the US and there was no routine screening and I just started talking in full sentences between 3 and 4 apparently
I feel very 'jagged' in terms of my abilities. I'm extremely mathematical and also almost tone-deaf. I found learning to drive really difficult too for example. I don't have any problems with empathy, was into pretend play etc so not 'classically autistic'.
I have to admit that I'm quite glad that I didn't end up with a diagnosis as think the labelling might had negative effects for me and might have given me an 'excuse' for not working as hard on certain things.